


live my life like it's just begun

by rebelprincelynx



Category: Banana Fish (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, F/M, Family Issues, Friends to Lovers, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, M/M, Period-Typical Homophobia, Recreational Drug Use, Sexual Harassment, THEY'RE DORKS, between BG characters, high school romance, jessica has, max thinks jessica is the prettiest girl alive, will get worse in later chapters
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-10
Updated: 2021-03-09
Packaged: 2021-03-16 16:53:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,990
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29953011
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rebelprincelynx/pseuds/rebelprincelynx
Summary: ---Jess swore the clock moved slower every time she turned around to glance at it, though this time she accidentally made eye contact with Max and looked away quickly.“Whaddya doin? Turning around to look at me, cute stuff?”Jessica’s eyes widened; she truly could not believe the words that came out of the mouth behind her. She turned back around, slowly, once again, to face Max, and deadpanned.“What did you just call me?”---
Relationships: Griffin Callenreese/Max Lobo, Max Lobo/Jessica Randy
Comments: 1
Kudos: 4





	live my life like it's just begun

**Author's Note:**

> hello!! i am very excited for this story! it is primarily going to revolve around max and jessica's relationship, but there will be flashback scenes to when griff and max were together! they will be an inseparable trio in later chapters <3 
> 
> i hope you enjoy!
> 
> TW for brief sexual harassment between two background characters -- they won't be important later on!

It was eight-thirty in the morning and Jessica Randy was stuck in Saturday detention with the chummiest boy she had ever seen. She didn’t even know what got her landed in here-- well, she did, but it _totally_ wasn’t justified. All she did was say a few choice words, then smack a guy upside the head. And put a knee in his groin. But _still_. 

Detention was the last place Jess thought she would be spending her precious weekend. Honors Roll students didn’t belong here scraping gum off desks. Though here she was, bored out of her mind. Her head was in her palm, tracing the “Fuck U” written in permanent marker on the desk with her pencil eraser. This boy, Max, she guessed his name was, after the principal, Mr. Golzine groaned, “Not you again, Maxwell…” when he saw who was on his attendance list, sat two desks behind Jess. There wasn’t much she knew about him, except for the fact that he flunked nearly every test he had been given, and smoked too much weed. She had been through all of high school with him, but they had maybe one class together before, so there wasn’t much interaction between them. _Such a strange first encounter_ she thinks to herself. 

The day could not have gone any worse. 

\-----------------

To much of the boys’ favor, Jessica was easily one of the most gorgeous girls at Los Angeles High School. Her thick blond curls bounced down her back, and her piercing ocean blue eyes caught the attention of any student who dared to gaze her down in the crowded hallways. She was the head captain of the cheer team, and had been since her junior year. Jess was a senior now, class of 1973, and was beyond ready to graduate. She hated this dump of a school, and all of the pricks and scumbags within its walls. 

Apparently, she had somehow given off the impression that she was some coldass, look-at-me-wrong-and-I’ll-punch-you-in-the-gut type of girl to most people, which wasn’t necessarily true. All she wanted to do was focus on her school work; grades were pretty much her top priority since her parents gave her such a hard time about getting into the right University. But sure. Maybe this presumption wasn’t _entirely_ false. Because as Jessica was shimmying her way through the sea of people to her locker, she saw some football jackass, clear as day, attempting to slip his hands under Tonya’s skirt, one of her friends on the cheer squad.

_It’s seven in the goddamn morning, dude. Come on!_

She aggressively slung her bag over her shoulder, and put a little more pep in her walk as she approached her clearly uncomfortable friend and the jock.

“Hey, _dickwad._ Yeah, you. Get your nasty paws off my friend, or else you’re going to regret it.”

She tried to place herself between the two, and reached for her friend’s hand.

“Oh, yeah? And whatcha gonna do, pretty thing?” 

_Nope._ There was no way Jessica could refrain herself from slapping that stupid smirk off his stupid face. 

_”Oh, you-”_

_Smack! Thwup!_

The huge jock doubled over in pain on the floor, while Tonya stared down at him in shock, then looked up and gave Jess an appreciative smile. 

“What the _fuck_ is wrong with you, Randy?” He let out another wince in pain. “Ah, _Shit!”_

“Ms. Randy! My office, now!” 

_Seriously?_

It was too fucking early to sit and stare at that old perverted bastard’s face. 

“Shit. You alright, Tonya?” 

She squeezed her hand, and furled her eyebrows in concern. “Jess- yeah. I’m alright. Thank you… for helping,” she managed to say. 

“You can skip cheer practice today, alright? Besides, you’re like, our best girl.” She gave her one last look before turning to Golzine’s office.

“I’ll see ya later, okay?” And left her friend and that football idiot cowering on the floor.

Jessica knocked lightly on the office door before entering, then slumped into a chair in front of Mr. Golzine’s desk. 

“Good morning to you too, Ms. Randy,” Jess looked up and mumbled a hushed apology. “Now, what’s the captain of the cheer squad and one of the school’s top students doing in my office at this hour-- or at _all_ , I should say.” He pushed his glasses up on his nose and Jessica swore he could have been staring straight through her skin. 

“Mr. G, you’ve got the story wrong. I mean, did you even see what was happening? He-- what’s his name, Antonio?” She shakes her head, “Doesn’t matter. He had Tonya pushed up against her locker with his hand completely up her skirt, not even _trying_ to be discreet.” Jess could feel her face begin to steam as she got even more enraged. “I was only trying to _help_ her-” 

“By physically harming another student?” he deadpanned. 

Hell no. She was not having this today. 

Jessica sprung out of her chair, causing it to topple over backwards, and alarmed the man sitting in front of her. 

“Ms. Randy! This behavior will not be tolerated-”

“Oh, _this_ behavior? You’re just going to let that harassment slide just because you didn’t witness it? Whatever happened to the hazing policy at this shitty school? Or did we ever even _have_ one? Just because he’s quarterback and his daddy’s favorite child, does _not_ excuse what he did to my _friend!”_ By now, tears are welling up in Jessica’s eyes, and she’s sure her face is as red as the apple on Golzine’s desk. She had to squeeze her fingernails into her palm to control her rage, yet she was still shaking uncontrollably. 

“Ms. Randy, why don’t you have a seat.” 

Reluctantly, she followed his order. 

He took a deep breath. “I’m not saying that… the incident didn’t happen-- I will be having a separate meeting with Antonio. Although, I have no choice but to assign you Saturday detention tomorrow for the physical assault of another student, and for raising your voice to authority.” Jess couldn’t believe what she was hearing, but she didn’t want to push it any further. 

“May I be excused now?” He nodded his head and Jess wasted no time scrambling out of the tiny office. 

\-----

The rest of Jessica’s Friday seemed glum, going through every class with a cloudy head. Every minute seemed to last hours, due to the fact that she was so lost in her thoughts. _When will this stupid misogynistic school get its shit together?_

She hadn’t even begun to think of how her parents would react to her detention slip. All Jess was in their eyes was just another work bee, expected to maneuver the maze hive of grades, college applications, jobs, and just _life, _completely on her own. She really couldn't remember the last time her parents had actually seemed to care about her mental state or emotions at all. But that was just it. They didn’t care. _Little Miss Perfect_ is all she was taught to be. __

__\----------_ _

__Jess swore the clock moved slower every time she turned around to glance at it, though this time she accidentally made eye contact with Max and looked away quickly._ _

__“Whaddya doin? Turning around to look at me, cute stuff?”_ _

__Jessica’s eyes widened; she truly could not believe the words that came out of the mouth behind her. She turned back around, slowly, once again, to face Max, and deadpanned._ _

__“What did you just call me?”_ _

__Luckily, Mr. Golzine sharply instructed the two to quit talking._ _

__“This is _detention,_ not a brunch date, you two. Now sit in silence and do your school work just like everybody else.”_ _

__Max whispered under his breath, “Sheesh! What rodent crawled up his panties this morning?”_ _

Jess just shook her head and stared down at her desk. She made herself a silent promise that she would never, no matter how low in the shit she got, would hang out with a guy like _Max._ I mean, it’s not because he was necessarily a bad person-- she just had her standards. She’s allowed to at least have those, right? Yeah. She _totally_ didn’t think about his freckles dusted across his summer tanned cheeks and most _definitely_ pushed away the thought of how well his red bomber jacket might look draped across her shoulders instead of his.

__Wait. What the hell?_ _

__Eventually, she pushed those thoughts down, and couldn’t help but let out a quiet giggle from Max’s comment about rodents in Golzine’s undergarments. A disturbing thought actually, when she thought about it._ _

__Only an hour had passed since she had last turned around, but Max had already gotten busy with his homework paper._ _

__Paper airplanes. He was making paper airplanes out of his homework._ _

__Luckily, Mr. G had somehow fallen asleep sitting back in his chair, so in their minds, they were _technically_ allowed to do whatever. _ _

_Thwup!_

__“Hey, uh… Jess, right?” Max 100% already knew her name, but he didn’t want to sound weird since they had never actually talked before today._ _

__Jessica turned around slowly with Max’s paper creation in her hands._ _

“Do you mind… um… huh?” Was she _laughing?_

__Her hand covered her mouth and her cheeks were puffed out, but Max could see that she still tried to hide her cute laugh._ _

__Huh. Cute?_ _

__“Ow.” Jessica contained herself, and swept her hair behind her shoulder before handing back the plane to Max. She blew a huge bubble with her gum, and popped it. Directly in Max’s face._ _

__“Dude! What was that for?” But he was laughing._ _

__“Dude yourself,” Jess smirked. She pointed back with her thumb to Golzine asleep in his chair._ _

__“Look how totally stupid he looks.”_ _

__They both craned their necks to glance at him, and it was true- he _did_ look stupid. He was snoring and drool was dripping out of his mouth clear as day. Jess turned back around, and for a moment they locked eyes, then burst out laughing. _ _

__The other students in the classroom just sighed and put their heads down._ _

__Max pushed out his chair and slung his backpack over one shoulder._ _

__He looked at Jessica. “You coming?”_ _

__“You mean like- you’re leaving? Won’t that just earn you another Saturday stuck here?”_ _

__Max just laughed. “They gave up on that rule a long time ago. I’m only here today because I was dared to take a hit during class. Guess you can figure that my teacher wasn’t too happy about that.”_ _

__Jessica thought this through. Antonio had ended up getting a detention too, but had gotten no further consequences- which really blows. He should have at _least_ been kicked from the football game next week. She figured that if she left now with Max, she wouldn’t get in _too_ much trouble. Worst comes to worst, she could just pretty talk her way out of another detention. And besides, she really had done nothing wrong in the first place. Jess let out an exhale and smiled up at the boy standing over her. _ _

__“Well, let’s get going before he wakes up!”_ _

__\-----_ _

__Max’s worn down white Puma sneakers squeaked on the tile floor as they walked down the empty hallway. Jessica didn’t know where they would be going, but as long as they were out of that classroom, she didn’t mind. She clutched onto her shoulder bag and stared at her feet as they silently walked side by side._ _

__“You shy or something?”_ _

__“Huh?”_ _

__He nudged her elbow. “I used to be terrified of you. Well. I mean- I sorta still am. But now that I've actually gotten to talk to you a bit, it’s different.”_ _

__Jess wasn’t sure whether to be flattered or not. “Why’s that?” She looked over to her right side to face him._ _

__“Uh- well, you’re like, one of the prettiest girls at this shit school. And you never talked to me, so I assumed you thought I was some degenerate, or something.”_ _

__The light blush across his face earned a laugh from the girl walking next to him._ _

__“You’re scared of pretty girls?”_ _

__Max, clearly flustered at this point, blurted something out without thinking._ _

__“W- well, I’ve never _been_ with a girl before. Only… this one guy.”_ _

Shit. He didn’t know what Jessica thought about _that._

__But she didn’t have a bad reaction at all._ _

__Jessica just smiled, now curious about this boy Max mentioned, but she didn’t want to pry._ _

__“Oh, really? I bet he really liked you. Thank you for trusting me with that.”_ _

__He scratched the back of his neck and let out a light chuckle._ _

__\-----_ _

__Max led her to the rusted visitor side bleachers by the baseball field, and continued their conversation once they sat down, facing away from the school building._ _

__“You probably know him. The guy I dated.”_ _

__“You don’t have to tell me if it would be uncomfortable for either of you,” Jess cautioned._ _

__“No, no, really, it’s alright. We were kinda fools being so open about our relationship at the time.” He paused. “Griff. Griffin Callenreese.”_ _

“You’re shitting me. No way!” She playfully punched his shoulder. “ _Griff?_ Wow, okay. I can totally see you two together, actually. He’s such a cutie! But how did you ever land yourself a guy like him? He’s like, mega smart, and you- you’re Max.” 

__“Hey! Don't sound so surprised!” Max disapprovingly swatted at Jess’s arm._ _

__“Sorry, no offense,” she smiled._ _

“None taken, but _man_ was he a real catch. We’re still best friends, though. I can introduce you to him. If you’d like that, I mean.” 

__Jessica can assume what made them cut things off eventually. Being gay in Los Angeles put you on a pedestal, making you a target for being politicized due to all of the raids and riots that had happened in past years. Not to mention the rampant homophobia that followed you about, no matter where you went._ _

__She couldn’t imagine how much that break up (and the bullying) hurt. Despite having interest in girls, she had never actually been with one. She knew her parents wouldn’t take it well, and barely had the courage to even talk to “pretty girls”, as Max would say, anyways._ _

__“He’s been in a few of my classes, I think. Calculus and maybe physics? I just remember that he was a quiet kid. Always reading or transposing music.”_ _

__Max looked down and kicked up dirt with the tip of his shoe._ _

“Yeah, he was always doing _nerd_ stuff. I didn’t mind though. I thought it was cute.” He scrunched his nose. 

__After a beat of silence, Max pulled out a joint, already rolled, and a lighter. He looked over at Jess as he placed it between his lips._ _

__“Sorry- You don’t mind, right?”_ _

__“All good. Never tried it before, though.”_ _

__“Oh. Well. D’you wanna? This is my only one, so we’d gotta share.”_ _

__She paused, and thought about her parents. Why exactly, she couldn’t say._ _

__What the hell did it matter anyways?_ _

__Surprising Max, she reached over and snatched it from his lips and lit it herself. She didn’t know what she was doing, obviously, but she assumed it couldn’t be that hard._ _

__Jess took a deep inhale, and not even a few seconds later, her eyes were watering from the intensity._ _

__“Shit-” She said between coughs, “My bad-” Seriously, what did she do wrong?_ _

__Max, on the other hand, had a laughing fit._ _

“You are _crazy_ , girl! Sheesh, it’s chill. Happens to everyone,” he continued to laugh. 

__Jessica’s cheeks flushed an awkward bright red, but managed to laugh along with him. She’d done more embarrassing things before._ _

__“Not my thing, I guess.”_ _

__She handed it back to Max. He made it look so easy. Being around him was easy. And she didn’t know why. Her past had been tainted by foggy memories and too many feelings of disgust around any man, or her boy peers who looked at her wrong. She knew these emotions all too well. But something about Max was enticing, charismatic almost. And maybe it sounded silly, but to Jessica it was a breath of relief, despite coughing her lungs out minutes previously. But as they sat together watching the cars journey by, it seemed as if it was just a relaxing Saturday. Not that Jessica got many of those._ _

__Max broke the silence. “Hey, we should beat it before anybody tries catching us out here. D’you needa ride home? I’ve got a red Jaguar. Well, it’s my dad’s, but I’ve gotta help pay for gas. It’s sorta beat up.”_ _

__“I don’t know much about cars, but I’m sure your kitty drives nicely,” she smirked. “I can walk- my house is close. Thanks for the offer, though. You’re kind.”_ _

__“Aww, well, the offer still stands whenever you might need it,” Max didn’t want to push, though he had to admit he was somewhat disappointed. He disregarded her waggish comment about the car._ _

__Max jumped down the bleachers step by step and stumbled at the bottom, tripping over his untied shoe laces. When he reached the safety of the ground, he turned around._ _

__“You didn’t see that.”_ _

__Jessica snickered at his clumsiness and began to walk down towards him._ _

__“Weirdo,” she grinned. “I’ll walk ya to your car.”_ _

__“Ah, that’s alright. You should really get home before Mr. G sees you.”_ _

__Jessica nodded, and slowly turned around, a little saddened to be leaving his company so soon._ _

__“Well, bye-bye, Max. It was nice getting to know you.”_ _

__“Wait, wait! Are we ever gonna hang again, or is this it?”_ _

__Jess was already several feet ahead by then, so she turned to shout over her shoulder._ _

__“Maybe if you’re lucky!”_ _

__But the two both knew that this Saturday together certainly wouldn’t be the last. As Max turned the ignition in his car, he watched Jessica walk down the sidewalk until she was out of view. He smiled to himself and wondered how the universe just so happened to let them meet._ _

**Author's Note:**

> jessica randy and max glenreed are bisexuals just because i say so 
> 
> aaaAA i hope this was exciting for you !! comments are appreciated !!!


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